Bedtime Stories
by the.toilets.are.quantum.locked
Summary: A series of non-linear, non-relating one shots, some angsty, some not, that will feature a brigade of favorite characters! In progress till I run out of imagination. R&R please!
1. Bedtime Stories

**AN- This** **is a story I started on November 23rd, Doctor Who's 48th. I had been hoping to finish it then, but I didn't have time. It's completed now, though! :-)**

**Just a cute little one-shot between the Doctor and Amy! I enjoyed writing this one! Im gonna try to write some sort of one-shot every week, if I can. Let's see if I can. Just to let you know, these will be in no particular order, and I will eventually get some 10 and possibly some 9 action in there. Expect angst. Or at least hurt/comfort. Yeeeeah...**

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><p><em>Bedtime Stories<em>

The Doctor paced up and down the endless hallways of his TARDIS. It had been a long day, and a very tired Amy had just earlier commuted to bed, insisting that she needed to get some sleep. Now, without her light-hearted voice cheering up the place, the only sound stirring in the massive complex was the quiet hum of the time rotor, echoing like a slight whisper through the corridors.

Thinking to himself, the Time Lord reflected on the happenings of the past few hours, recounting to himself the return of the Silurians, the loss of Rory, and Amy's forgetting of him. Watching all memory of her Rory fading from her very eyes was heartbreaking for the Doctor to witness, almost as heartbreaking as him having to wipe all remembrance of himself from Donna Noble, the most important woman in the universe. But that incident was years ago, and though it still sometimes lingered in his head, coming to surface at the most inopportune moments, he had, for the most part, chosen to regard it as simply a "bad day". Much like he did the Time War.

The lonely man continued aimlessly through the TARDIS, not having any real destination, but eventually stopping at Amy's bedroom door. It was slightly ajar, he noticed; and though the Doctor usually wouldn't dare peek into a friend's room like that, as an invasion of privacy, there was a small source of light coming from inside, and he could clearly see Amy lying flopped on top of the covers of her bed, as if she had collapsed there exhaustedly, falling fast asleep the minute her head hit the soft comforter. He felt a twang of pity in his hearts for her, as her current position didn't look very comfortable at any stretch of the imagination. After a few minuscule seconds of deliberation, the Doctor silently entered her room.

On the TARDIS, the bedroom of a companion was designed to circulate around their current feelings, wishes, and dreams. It could change at any moment, and the more the TARDIS knows about you, the more it becomes personalized. With this, the Doctor, though he had never stepped foot into Amy's special room before, could nonetheless tell what dreams were mulling around in her head at that particular moment. Her room was almost completely dark, a searing panorama of space, galaxies, nebulas, and planets from afar slowly orbiting the walls around the small bed. The actual bed laid in a corner, just a twin-sized, with a tall back to it, the whole structure that deep, perfect shade of black. Comets flew by every once and a while on the ceiling, and light from a million stars gave off a dim glow in the room, the light the Doctor had seen from outside. Besides the bed, the room was empty. There was no other pieces of furniture in here, which kind of surprised him a bit.

The Doctor continued, to bend down, gently moving Amy so that she was completely in her bed, and then tucked her in, pulling the covers to her chin. During that whole time, Amy never so much as stirred. He took a seat on the edge of her bed, moving a stray stand of ginger hair out of her face.

"Amelia Pond..." the Doctor uttered quietly, giving a hint of a smile down at his friend. "You waited for me your whole childhood, yet you've never, in those 14 long years, given up on me... You've never given up on me, even today. I'll tell you one thing, I don't deserve the kind of trust, you know? Rule one: the Doctor lies. That's always been the case... Even from the very beginning..." The Doctor sighed, old memories suddenly pounding against his head, wanting to come out, wanting to be lived, wanting to be breathed. He hadn't really wanted to go into talking about back then, but he kinda needed to. His mind was troubled, and he needed someone to talk to. Not necessarily one to listen, just someone to talk to. That's sometimes all one really needs. So the Doctor got into a comfortable position on the edge of the bed, and began to tell the sleeping Amy a story. From the very beginning...

"Once, a very long while ago, there was a boy, who lived on a distant planet. Gallifrey, its name was. I think I've mentioned it before..." The Doctor paused, sadness welling up inside him at the mention of his homeworld. Nevertheless, he continued.

"But this young boy was different from all the others. This boy dreamed, Amy. He dreamed of seeing the stars, up close and personal. This dream stayed with him his whole life on Gallifrey... He never forgot." The Doctor sat on the edge of her bed, wringing his hands, memories of an innocent childhood sweeping through his mind like a wildfire. Were had it all gone wrong, he thought. Where had it all gone awry?

"This boy ended up marrying, having a family. Children, and grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren. During this time, though... the leadership, on Gallifrey... it began to be corrupt. So the boy planned an escape, stealing an obsolete type 40 TARDIS, and running away, with one of his granddaughters. He was... admittedly a grumpety old thing," the Doctor admited sheepishly. "Wanted to feel important. He was SO young, yet so old. They ended up exiling on Earth, and Susan, she had been called, well, she went to school there for a few months, returning home each night to that TARDIS, which had landed in a small junkyard. 76 Totter's Lane... That's where it all began..."

That was also where the TARDIS first took form as a police public call box, its chameleon circuit malfunctioning soon afterwards, the Doctor though quietly to himself. All those years, he had tried to fix it, and he actually did once, but it almost immediately faulted back to police box. He never really tried to fix it again. The Time Lord had, over all those years, grown to love the TARDIS as it was. He closed his eyes, both telling his story to the silent Amy and living it, in his memories.

"That's where he started to run," he continued, telling Amy the story, "and boy, I can you... he never stopped. He's still running, even to this day, after hundreds of years, and no matter what happens, he will continue, and I know this. Because that boy is me. That was my story, my life."

The Doctor took a melancholy breath, leaning against the bedpost. There was a distant look in his eyes. "But that boy is alone now... Gallifrey is gone, and with it, his people. Everyone." He closed his eyes, trying not to think about it... Trying not to think about the Last Great Time War, the war that shattered it all. The Moment. It might just be a bad day to him now, but that doesn't mean he doesn't still remember. Then he snapped back to attention, opening his eyes again, telling his story to the sleeping Amy lying silently under the covers.

"Things happen, though, and you have to learn to move on. Even losing friends comes as a shock, but eventually, you'll get over it. For a while there, I remember refusing to travel with anyone at all, afraid of losing someone else. But it got boring after a while, and... I started talking to myself. Then I found you... The Girl Who Waited. And you waited, and waited, and you waited for fourteen whole years, and now you're here! My Amelia Pond... here at last!"

The Doctor smiled down at the sleeping form below him. "I never have told you how much I love you being here, every day. Because you are magnificent, and don't you ever let anyone else tell you different, you hear? You saved the Starwhale, you stopped the bomb the Daleks made, you walked through a field of Angels with your eyes shut, the whole way! So remember this, Amy, and thank you for everything. I don't feel alone anymore, thanks to you."

He raised himself from his sitting position on the bed, and slowly creeped towards the door, being careful not to make a sound. He silently stepped through the doorway, turning around to look at her one last time before he left. "Goodnight, Amelia..." he whispered, "Sleep well!" He then slowly and quietly shut the door.

And in the black bed that she lay content in, a small smile crossed Amy's face, as she opened her eyes and looked up at the stars.

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><p><strong>Remember... Reviews are good for everyone! You'll feel good that you spent time to review, and so will the author! :-)<strong>

**x~Savannah x (peace, love, and DW)**


	2. Nightmares

**AN- This was inspired a few days ago when I was listening to the Chameleon Circuit song "Nightmares", (hence forth the name of this particular chapter), as I read about Gallifreyan history. There's this really well-researched timeline of practically everything you could ever want to know about Gallifreyan history called Rassilon, Omega, and that Other guy. It's pretty awesome, look it up on Google!**

**But enough on that...**

**This is probably the most angsty thing I've written in a while, hehheh. With Eleven. I promise one day I'll write some Ten! I just haven't gotten around to it! And as we all know, I do not own Doctor Who. Bleh.**

xX

Nightmares

"Amy, Rory, I know where your daughter is, and on my LIFE she will be safe!"

These were the words that continually echoed through the Doctor's head as he flew the TARDIS, far away. Okay, so maybe it had been a desperate lie. Big deal. But when he stopped to think, he was actually telling the truth. He very well knew exactly where their daughter was now, and she WAS safe. It was that he just didn't want to relive those bad memories that still lingered, though now a lifetime away, there in The Library. He had enough to think about already.

There was the events today, for instance. He thought he had her. He thought he would be able to rescue Amy and Rory's daughter and take her home with her parents to Ledworth, to live a life free from danger. And it was his confidence that destroyed him, that set him off his guard. If he hadn't been so arrogantly proud of what he thought was his victory, then he would of noticed what was different about the baby Melody.

He could have saved her... But instead he had failed.

That wasn't at all what was making the Doctor uneasy. He knew deep down that Melody Pond would turn out fine, she would grow up to be River Song, and it was this thought that calmed him. Instead, what ate at his conscience was himself.

He had changed so much these past few years, and not in any way for the better. Even today it was evident; the Doctor could still feel boiling anger seeping through his system, even a while afterwards. The Oncoming Storm, some people called him. Ha... He sure raised a storm today. But this wasn't right, this wasn't what he used to be... Who he used to be... He never wanted to be like this. Never, in all of the days that he's lived.

And a very long time ago, there was once a day when the Doctor was just a young Gallifreyan boy who wanted one day to touch the stars, and everything that lay beyond them. Theta, he was often called back then. He was always such a bright and curious thing, the Doctor remembered fondly, but sometimes that curiosity tended to get him in heaps of trouble.

There was one time for example, when he and other members of his academy chapter went on a class trip, that it landed him and Kochei in a restricted sector of the Citadel. Oh, yes... He could remember this quite clearly... Both of them ended up getting arrested by the Chancellory guards, and afterwards it took a whole lot of muddled explanations and beseeching apologies from both Theta, Kochei, AND their instructor before they were let out of custody. They got busted big time by him later, set on probation and unable to graduate until further notice. But Kochei in the end somehow managed to wipe both their records of the whole incident, to the annoyance of their instructor, for he now had nothing to prove that they ever were on academic probation to begin with.

Partly because of this and other similar incidents, Theta had been labeled as a trouble maker in the years following, but in reality he was a good-natured boy at core, he just needed to learn some self-control. He did have his group of friends he hung out with, all of the young Gallifreyan rebels, including, among others; Kochei, later known to the rest of the universe as the Master, Ushas, who was the Rani, Drax, and the Time Lord who would eventually be called the War Chief.

In the end, after two attempts, Theta graduated but only barely, getting a low double gamma score in his classes, the lowest possible passing grade you can get. Some time after graduating though, he turned the tables and became well-known and respected among the Time Lords, serving on the Council and then the High Council. There was many a person who honestly believed that one day he would become president...

But even success has its time, and his ended when he decided to leave his home world. Theta just didn't feel as if he belonged there on Gallifrey anymore. He was getting bored with the strict conformity of Time Lord civilization and the countless attempted revolutions that were going on, and felt as if he could find his personal truth out among the stars. And then there was his childhood dream...

That's the only reason he had gone away with that stolen TARDIS. Yes, civilization on Gallifrey was becoming conceited and corrupted, but at the end of each and every day it all circled back around to that childlike curiosity of what laid beyond. So away he flew, taking a young Gallifreyan girl, Arkytior, his granddaughter, with him.

Eventually, Arkytior became known as Susan, and Theta himself chose to be referred to as "The Doctor". At first they were just travelers, exploring the sights in the expanse-full universe. The Time Lord and his granddaughter. Just how it was meant to be. And then they met Ian Chesterson and Barbra Wright...

Needless to say, the Doctor had been running ever since. And over the years, as he unwittingly managed to save worlds the universe over, he had been changing, ever so slowly... He hadn't even been able to notice it until recently. The Doctor, once a kind and curious young boy... Anymore? He wasn't sure exactly WHAT he was becoming.

It was the Time War that really snapped him in half. If it weren't for those horrors, he didn't think he would be in this position right now. He might of not even been in his eleventh body at this moment of time, if it weren't for the war that shattered everything. Even to this very day, the Doctor could still close his eyes at night and see it. The wounds were still open, cut deep into his two hearts. He doubted they ever would heal. Nothing could ever completely help him recover, not any amount of comfort, nor any Rose. He had tried countless to block out the knowledge that he was the one who had used the Moment, but at no luck. Trying not to think of it just made him think of it more, dipping into his more darker urges.

So he had put on armor. An armor of eccentricity, laughter, and genius, to hide away that darkness lurking deep inside. For a while he thought it would work. He was happy with Rose; he loved her. She was his life... And oh, did she love him back. But he never told her the truth she so deeply deserved, for fear of losing another person to fight for. This was his mistake. And unfortunately, he didn't realize it until much later, when it was too late.

Each person lost to him, each burst of unquenchable anger, and every misguided step he took started to grate on his armor, twisting it and breaking it into pieces, and melting it to an unrecognizable form. Every regeneration the Doctor went through helped with this, damaging his disguise even more, as it repaired his physical body instead. The cruelness of life... He looked so much younger than most of his past incarnations, but he felt the opposite. He was so old now; and he felt his age.

Just today even, the Doctor was showing his true colors. All that rage and anger. All those lies he told; but for what? Why did everything come to this?

"You make them so afraid," River had said to him, only a few minutes ago now. "When you began all those years ago, sailing off to see the universe, did you ever think you'd become this? The man who can turn an army around at the mention of his name. Doctor. The word for healer and wise man, throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you are, what might that word come to mean? To the people of the Gamma Forests, the word doctor means "mighty warrior." How far you've come. And now they've taken a child, the child of your best friends. And they're going to turn her into a weapon, just to bring you down. And all this, my love, in fear of you."

Thinking of this made the Doctor's hearts ache with guilt and misery. Truth hurts, more than any lie. What would the Doctor think, though... if he could see himself now?

And at this thought, the Doctor shut off his emotional barrier for the first time in a very long while, and cried.

He'd get through this, he told himself. Somehow.

**Hope you guys enjoyed it! :D**

**x~Savannah x **


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